Michelle from Factotum of Arts shared a little about her experience with the Quilt Design A Day group in an interview earlier this summer. (Check out more QDAD interviews here!) We asked Michelle to share one of her designs each month throughout fall and winter, inspiring you to create her pretty blocks and quilts!

Learn more about Michelle in her introduction, and have fun with this fresh and modern Succulent pattern…

Design to Reality: Succulent
Have you ever thought of designing quilts? Have you tried practicing your skill every day to find your style or improve that skill? That is exactly what we do in Quilt Design a Day, started by Anne at Play Crafts. We use the daily color palette from Design Seeds and create a design in approximately 15 minutes. I am excited to share, today, one of my designs from Quilt Design a Day.

Succulent is inspired by the design seeds color palette and image for July 30, 2014. This is one of my favorite designs as it is simplistic in nature, but it took me out of my comfort zone. The color palette is not my typical chose of palettes: Brown, Greens and Coral.

Preparing the Half Square Triangles (HST):
1. Take all the 4.5” square pieces. Match each of Fabric A, B, C, D squares with a square from Fabric E. Make sure you line up all the corners of the two squares.

2. Draw a line with washable fabric marker across one of the diagonals.

3. Sew a ¼ inch seam on either side of the diagonal line.

4. Cut on the diagonal drawn line. In total, there should be now 60 HST.

5. Press all the seams (I prefer to press my seams open).

6. Trim the HST to 3.5” making sure that the fabric seam remains at the corners and it should be at 45 degrees.

Note: I like to trim my blocks down for accuracy, so I do make them slightly larger. The equation I used to get the final HST is: Final block size + 1” = 3.5+1 = 4.5 (others may use 3.5 + 7/8)

Assembly:
Always use a ¼” seam allowance while piecing.

1. Assemble the quilt row by row. In the diagram below, stitch all the pieces of the individual rows first. Press seams as you go.Note: Pieces marked with A, B, C and D refer to the HST of that color + E, made in the previous step.

2. Once all individual rows are sewn, as depicted in the diagram below, sew each row together. Match up each row from the center and move out towards the edges, ensuring you match up seams as you go.Note: I recommend using a pinning or glue method to hold the rows in place, with matched seams, as you sew them together.

3. When all rows are joined and all seams are pressed, you baste and quilt your sandwich. Square your quilt and bind it to finish your quilt.

I hope you have fun making the project your own. We would love to see your results!

This post is sponsored by Pink Chalk Fabrics. Pink Chalk Fabrics specializes in quality fabrics for the modern sewist and quilter. You’ll find designer quilting cottons, Liberty of London Tana Lawn, and an extensive and well curated selection of modern basics including Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Solids, Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, cross weave wovens and Essex Linen.

I just discovered Michelle’s Factorum blog recently and am so impressed with her artistic & technical skills. She successfully translates her ideas into feasible designs with masterful results. Thank you for featuring Michelle and her creations.

How dare you tease me with such a lovely design — I adore the simple geometry and solid-color fabric selections! I’ve got to figure out a way to work this into my already-too-long to-do list. Thanks for sharing. : )

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